Drove off in girlfriend’s car after being assaulted - court told

Ballymena Courthouse.

Published:13:45Friday 03 February 2017

A man who was once beaten and thrown naked into a taped-up wheelie bin which was abandoned in a park, has himself now been in court and claimed he only drove with drink taken to flee a pub after another assault.

Adam Robinson (24), of Kintullagh Court, Ballymena, appeared at the town’s Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol; taking his girlfriend’s car without her authority and absence of insurance and a licence during the incident on December 27 last year.

In 2015 two men and a woman were sentenced in a high-profile case for their roles in an incident in which Adam Robinson was imprisoned and found naked and battered in a sealed wheelie bin in Ballymena.

In that case, a judge said the Adam truly believed he was going to die when he was left in the bin, unable to see and with limited air to breathe during the ordeal in September, 2013.

He was freed after a dog sniffed out the bin at Sentry Hill park and the judge said if he had not been found, the consequences could have been far worse.

Judge Gordon Kerr said in the 2015 court that when Robinson was freed from the bin he was naked, covered in sweat, extremely distressed and “clearly disorientated.”

The judge said that after reading victim impact reports, it was clear he had been left “highly traumatised” as a result of his ordeal and suffered from post-traumatic stress.

Now, Robinson has been in court himself.

At Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday a prosecutor said police saw a car swerving across a road in the early hours and the defendant had an alcohol/breath reading of 58/35.

Defence solicitor Stewart Ballentine said Robinson and his girlfriend had gone out for a few drinks and walked to a bar in Ballymena but he was assaulted in the premises, then left, and fearful he was being followed took his girlfriend’s car “on the spur of the moment”.

The solicitor said the girlfriend was “not too pleased” with him taking her car.

District Judge Peter King said Robinson had a previous drink related conviction in 2013 and said that meant a three year driving ban for the latest offences along with fines of £450.